Web Deploy 3.5

Overview

Web Deploy (msdeploy) simplifies deployment of Web applications and Web sites to IIS servers. Administrators can use Web Deploy to synchronize IIS servers or to migrate to newer versions of IIS. Web Deploy Tool also enables administrators and delegated users to use IIS Manager to deploy ASP.NET and PHP applications to an IIS server.

Package, archive and deploy Web applications more easily

Web Deploy empowers Visual Studio and WebMatrix to help developers streamline the deployment of Web applications to Microsoft IIS Web servers or to Microsoft Azure Websites. In addition, integration with Web Platform Installer allows developers to simply and easily install community web applications.

Web Deploy enables you to package your Web application content, configuration, databases and any other artifacts like registry, GAC assemblies etc., which can be used for storage or redeployment. If the package needs to be redeployed to a different environment, configuration values within the package can be parameterized during deployment without requiring modifications to the packages themselves. Once created, these packages can be deployed using Web Deploy cmdline or IIS Manager without requiring administrative privileges.

Migrate Web servers from IIS 6 to IIS7, IIS8 and IIS8.5 with ease

Simplify the planning of your IIS6/IIS7/IIS8 migrations by determining incompatibilities and previewing the proposed changes before starting the process. Learning about any potential issues in advance gives you the chance to take corrective measures and simplifies migration.

Synchronize your server farm efficiently

Web Deploy allows you to efficiently synchronize sites, applications or servers across your IIS server farm by detecting differences between the source and destination content and transferring only those changes which need synchronization. The tool simplifies the synchronization process by automatically determining the configuration, content and certificates to be synchronized for a specific site. In addition to the default behavior, you still have the option to specify additional artifacts for the synchronization, including databases, COM objects, GAC assemblies and registry settings.

Features

Seamless integration with IIS Manager (IIS7 and above), Visual Studio (2010 and above)for creating packages and deploying them onto a machine, both locally and remotely.

Integration with WebMatrix for deploying and downloading web applications.

Seamless integration with the Web Platform Installer to install community web applications simply and easily.

Web application packaging:

Ability to package a Web application or an entire site, including the associated databases.

Ability to package ACLs, COM, GAC and registry settings.

Supports both live servers and zipped packages as a source or destination.

Web application deployment:

Administrative privileges are not required in order to deploy Web applications.

Ability to add powerful parameters to change text in files when they are deployed (such as prompting to replace a connection string when deploying from QA to staging environments).

Integration with the IIS Web Management Service (WMSVC) for remote deployment by non-administrators.

Server administrators have granular control over the operations that can be performed and can delegate tasks to non-administrators.

Web server migration and synchronization:

Ability to synchronize or migrate the entire Web server, a Web site or application.